What Art Eaan!, lJt~tJrdtr~?
to
meet a standard that doesn't exist! "I analyzed an ad with this
beautiful woman," Ashleigh explains. "She was very thin and
looked very seductive. It wasn't even a real person. Models' faces
can be computerized. They put the perfect eyeswith the perfect
nose, etc. They airbrush the bodies because the women don't
really look like that! Being around other models, you can see
firsthand that what you see in the media definitely isn't real!"
There's another downside to modeling and the fashion world.
It hurts to feel that no one can see past your outer appearance.
Yet if that is all you are focused on, how can you expect anyone
to see past it? "It was always about how I looked, how pretty I
was, how my makeup was done, or what my outfit looked like,"
says Ashleigh. "No one ever wanted to get real or hear about
something on the inside of me."
Ashleigh continues, "They didn't want to know me. I had a
lot to share. I went to a great school, and I loved to learn, but at
that point it was about how little I could eat and how beautiful
I could be. I definitely was not in touch with real life. Through
numerous media outlets, the enemy feeds the whole world a lie
that how we look is all that matters. It just made me completely
lifeless and empty."
What About Pro-Ana?
Pro-ana is a term that has become common among girls
looking to the Internet for answers. The prefix pro means "in
favor of," and ana is short for anorexia. (The term pro-mia
means "in favor of bulimia.") The pro-ana community not only
accepts girls in their eating disorders, it also encourages them
to continue in their disorders.
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